EAST WEST Taking Up The Thread
So we kept the original theme of the Conference, Picking Up The Thread, as we cannot ignore the many changes that took place in the past 2 years, adding the new challenges caused by the military conflict of which the total impact cannot yet be measured. We will talk about the possibly changed role of the business world that entered actively the arena of Diversity & Inclusion. EmW still considers them crucial partners for strengthening the LGBTIQ communities. But we will also give ample space and a voice to the situation of the many LGBTIQ groups that were forced to leave their country and are building a new network, still supporting the LGBTIQ community in their home regions. After two years, we can meet again in person! But our signature event is hybrid, so we make online streaming available to audiences across the whole world.
• A Look from the East and a Look from the West • An East meets West Reality Check on Slovakia • Our LGBTIQ Community in Times of War • LGBTIQ NGOs in Exile - Bending but Never Cracking! • Catching up with the Growing LGBTIQ Travel • CSR and the Journey to ESG • Coming-out in Business... a Small Step with Big Rewards • The East meets West Awards and Celebration Interested to know more and join us, please have a look at the full program https://www.eastmeetswest.eu/2022conference Looking forward to meet you all! And there are good reasons not to miss our 2022 Conference as the program features:
There are many European organisations, which work with and for the LGBTIQ community. They range from large international institutions to very small local NGOs. But the Central and Eastern part of Europe was somehow forgotten and for many organisations, Europe stopped where the so-called ‘Iron Curtain’ existed until 1989. So, in 2013 in Prague, Ludo Swinnen and Pavel Šubrt, set up in Vienna East meets West, and became their 2 drivers. East meets West is a network of LGBTIQ professionals from Western and primarily Eastern Europe and facilitates the exchange of ideas, the sharing of best practices and generates mutual inspiration to improve the social acceptance of LGBTIQ people in the different countries. To get a full overview of the activities, just have a look at www.eastmeetswest.eu. Had the original Social focus point of East meets West been quite innovative in the beginning, this was now little by little copied by larger, more powerful organizations so East meets West started looking for a new strategy that could not only answer the changing needs of the LGBTIQ movement but would inspire these NGO’s to look for new strategic goals. As two senior business people, Pavel and Ludo looked at the possible role LGBTIQ businesses could play in the future. It became quickly clear that this topic was really never looked at in Europe. LGBTIQ owned and managed businesses are, just like women owned businesses, clearly underrepresented in the economical networks of countries. East meets West wants to motivate the many LGBTIQ owned and operated businesses to come out and become a positive role model in their community.
This has become an additional mission of East meets West. They saw that negative social attitudes towards LGBTIQ people are not based on facts or experiences but on questionable values that have been handed down from generation to generation and that these can only be debunked by visible and positive roll-models, especially by LGBTIQ business representatives. So today, the East meets West brand has two pillars, EmW Social that has a catalyst function in the LGBTIQ organizational ecosystem by connecting NGO’s, diplomatic representatives, officials, corporate players and entrepreneurs. EmW Business is the facilitator
of awareness on LGBTIQ businesses and that LGBTIQ people can be successful
entrepreneurs and become role models inside and outside the LGBTIQ community.
Co-Founders of East meets West
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Still being an association run by the 2 co- founders, the yearly East meets West Conference became their yearly moment of truth, a
check-point for measuring the impact East meets West had in their traditional home market, the CEE region. It is the signature event of the association when the
active networking with key LGBTIQ activists, allowed them to put the finger on the pulse of the European LGBTIQ communities. Also this year, EmW will organize its 8th International East meets West Conference, this time in the Slovak capital, Bratislava on July 22nd. When planning this 2022 East meets West Conference, we were happy to leave, after 2 difficult years, the COVID pandemic behind us. We all needed to come back to our pre- COVID LGBTIQ activities. But then an even bigger disaster hit us, the military invasion of Ukraine by Russia. East meets West (EmW) has been partnering with all CEE countries, independent of the political system that the country had as EmW focuses on all LGBTIQ communities.
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